


Right to Survive

by noblecrescent



Category: Arrowverse - Fandom, Batwoman (TV 2019), Batwoman Cw
Genre: Frenemies, Friendship, Gen, Heist, Metahumans, Partners in Crime, arrowverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22769323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblecrescent/pseuds/noblecrescent
Summary: Rosalind "Dawne" Coleman was dying last time she remembered, but now she finds herself in the world of Batwoman where she now has to survive Alice's plans for Gotham City.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly have no idea where this came from but I just wanted someone to be on Alice's side, so...here we are!
> 
> P. S: I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's also a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "noble-crescent" and the tag I created for any posts having to do with my work is # noblecrescentedit.

She was running for her life. That's usually how it went. She could hear the men screaming for her to stop. _As if_ she would do them that favor.

She blew on the pieces of hair that kept falling over her face. Perhaps she could do with a haircut soon. _Or maybe you could just stop stealing from people_. She smirked. Another _as if_.

If she stopped stealing, then how would she eat? How would she survive? No, see, the world couldn't be _that_ unfair with her. It was her right to survive.

So, she continued to run.

Her legs already knew the drill. She made a quick swerve into the next street, running past people on the sidewalk minding their businesses. She had no problem pushing her way through, ignoring the strangers' protests. Okay, maybe she laughed a little.

"STOP HER!"

Laugh time was over, _fast time_ was now!

Her breath was heavy but her endurance was great. She'd been doing this her entire 22 years, after all. Nothing could stop - _THUD!_

Her back had hit the ground too hard that she actually felt the reverberation from the blow. Wait, it wasn't the ground that made that noise in her ears. The ringing had to be from something else.

"Well, well, well," she heard a man's voice, although it sounded a bit distorted.

She tried getting up but there was a terrible pain in her chest. Her hand reached over her chest and felt a pool of liquid. She'd been _shot_. That was the ringing noise left in her ears.

"Well Rosalind," the man's voice was closer now. "I bet you're regretting taking the bosses' jewel, huh?"

Rosalind blinked rapidly in hopes of clearing up her vision a bit. Her lips curved into a crooked smile. "Rosalind Coleman _never_ regrets. I'd steal that thing...all over again." She inhaled sharply but when she did she felt the pain of the bullet spreading throughout her body. "You know how much money people...are willing to pay for that...thing?"

The man bent down beside her, smiling too smugly for Rosalind to believe she'd make it out alive. "Then you should've been smarter in how you do business. _I_ wouldn't have gotten caught." He carelessly threw her arms to her sides and opened up her jacket. His hand searched her inside pockets until he found what he was looking for. "And I won't," he smirked once he had the purple stone in his hand. "I can't believe you sold the jewel, dear Rose." He would be taking her money and she couldn't do a damn thing about it.

"Screw...you..." she managed to glare at him.

"Thank you," the man dramatically bowed and stuffed the stone into his pant's pocket. "I think I'll let you die slowly and alone for kicks. Make it look like the buying went wrong. Until next time - er, next life, I guess."

Rosalind couldn't see him leave anymore. Her vision was too blurry to make out anything by now. She could try to move but where exactly would she drag herself to? A hospital? As soon as she stepped foot in there - assuming she would even be able to stand - the cops would be on her ass. Her rap sheet was too big to ignore.

It was her right to survive but it seemed like her life was finally up.

As Rosalind felt her life slowly slip away, she could swear that she felt the ground shaking. She could think it was just her body perhaps convulsing but...she was pretty sure she was hearing the cement cracking too. She blinked fast again and for the few seconds that she could see, she saw a fiery orange wave coming from ahead. People were screaming and in panic, much too panicked to take notice of the dying woman on the ground.

Rosalind swallowed hard and tried to move, shift on one side, but she yelped in pain. "It's my right to survive!" she exclaimed, but her body gave out and she dropped on her back again.

It was too unfair to die like this. Things had never gone as planned for her, ever since she was a child - since she was _born_ \- so how could she be dying now?

Her eyes closed before she could come up with an answer.

The orange wave was coming for her, coming for everyone in its path. However, before it reached Rosalind something else gobbled her up. One of the cracks in the cement next to her had opened wider than the others on the ground. A bright white light struck up into the sky, expanding in that area until it reached Rosalind's body. Tendrils of white wrapped around her body until she was completely gone.

And then the orange wave took care of the rest of the world.

~ 0 ~

Rosalind felt cold prickling her face. Her face scrunched and before she knew it, her hands reached to her cheeks. Once she realized what she did, her eyes snapped open and she saw a dark sky.

"What...?" her hands went to her chest but she felt no blood, no pain. She raised her head the necessary to see with her eyes - because even her vision was clear now - and she was stunned to see nothing but her striped shirt without a bullet hole.

She'd been dying, she'd been _really_ dying. She couldn't have made a mistake like that.

She sat upright and let her hands roam her body to make sure she was actually awake and not dreaming. One of her hands checked her jacket's inside pockets and to her dismay she found they were empty. Her stone was gone.

"You've got to be kidding me," she groaned. She pushed herself up and started looking around.

It was a regular street with regular people and regular cars and whatnot. Where was the mass panic she'd heard before...before she'd closed her eyes. _Did I even die, then? Or is this what the afterlife is like?_ She walked a couple steps towards the road and couldn't see anything that looked familiar to her.

In her growing panic that she really was in the afterlife, her hand seized to grab the nearest stranger on the street. "What city is this!?"

The stranger, a woman with terrified blue eyes, pried Rosalind's hand off her arm. "G-Gotham City."

Rosalind's face scrunched in confusion. "Excuse me? Isn't that the place where Batman lives or something?"

The woman nodded her head shakily. "Yes. And Batwoman so don't try anything."

"The hell are you talking about?" Rosalind snapped. "It's a fictional city! You know, from the stupid comics?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about but you need to leave me alone!" the woman made a hasty getaway.

"Hey lady! Come back! I'm not done asking questions!" Rosalind was left shouting in her spot. "Gotham City," she repeated, rolling her eyes. "Give me a break." Some people were just too into their comic books to know where reality began.

She turned in the opposite direction and began to walk.

So if she wasn't in her city, Los Angeles, where the hell was she? And how was she supposed to make sense out of the fact she'd been _shot_ and close to dying? Or the fact her stone was gone from her pocket? None of it made sense.

 _Maybe I just hit my head hard or something_ , she reasoned for the tenth time in two blocks. _Something_ happened but she couldn't figure out _what_.

' _In the latest news, Batwoman just finished saving an entire family from a burning car crash...'_

Rosalind stopped walking. Her eyes flickered in the direction the newscast was broadcasting from.

' _The family is reported to have suffered only minor injuries. Had it not been for Batwoman's interference, those injuries could've been more, including death!'_

Rosalind turned her entire body towards the street pole that had a screen broadcasting such news. She hurried up to it in time to see Batwoman herself in the act of saving the family. "What the...?" Rosalind's eyes were wide as could be.

Batwoman was _real_. She was actually fucking _real_.

"N-n-n-n-n-no, that's not possible," Rosalind shook her head, letting her ginger curls once again fall over her front shoulders. "This is...this is not possible." Last time she heard that woman was a _character_ in a comic book and, lately, a _series_. "This is not real! You can't be real!" she yelled at the screen. "None of this-" she turned around, hands bunched in her hair, "-is real! You're all fake!"

"Well," went a female voice Rosalind didn't know, "You're right about that part. This city and its elite are all _fake_."

Rosalind met the woman's face and felt her blood run cold. Maybe it was a little bit real.

The woman was tall and had short, wavy blonde hair that almost seemed platinum. Her blue eyes were cold and intense, but her smile was delirious. Of course her odd choice of fashion could rival the delirious smile.

"But you-" the woman suddenly had a pocket knife pointed at Rosalind's face, almost touching her nose, "-aren't. In fact, _Rosa_ , as far as I've heard...you're the go-to-girl when someone needs a jewel."

Rosalind's eyes seemed cross when she looked at the knife now poking her nose. "Um...who said that...?"

"I'd steal it myself but I have more pressing matters and even though I'm _that_ good, I can't be in two places at once," the woman's delirious smile widened.

Rosalind's eyes finally met the woman's again. "You're not...you're not actually..." she swallowed hard, "Please, for the love of God, tell me you're not _Alice_?"

The woman stepped back and dramatically bowed with her knife in hand. "How do you do?"

Rosalind actually whimpered. Her head turned to the screen on the pole where they were still broadcasting Batwoman's save. It was _real_?

"I'm not...I'm not Rosa," she began to say. "I'm not...whoever you think I am. I'm just a very confused woman who has no idea how this all possible!"

Alice straightened up on her feet, eyes narrowing as she scrutinized Rosalind from head to toe. And suddenly, her hand struck across Rosalind's face, knocking the woman to the ground. Before Rosalind could even move, Alice had one of her combat boots over her chest and the knife brandished towards her. "If you're not Rosa then I guess there's no use for you...which means..." she wiggled one of her laced, finger-less gloved hands at Rosalind.

"W-w-w-w-w-wait!" Rosalind shouted just as Alice's hand swooped to stab her. "I'm not 'Rosa' but I _am_ useful!"

She was choosing to pretend that this entire thing was real; that Gotham City was real, that Batwoman was real, that the crazy Alice was real too.

Alice didn't remove her boot from Rosalind's chest, nor the knife that was midway to Rosalind's face, but she tilted her head and waited for Rosalind to explain herself.

Rosalind swallowed hard again. She knew that this character - this _person_ \- was a force to be reckoned with. She was crazy and intelligent, a deadly combination. The good thing was that Rosalind herself had a bit of crazy in her and lots of smarts. She wasn't a stranger to the dark side.

"I-I know my way around thievery," Rosalind found her voice a few seconds later. "I've stolen things no one else can. I'm not...I'm not the person you were looking for."

"You look just like her," Alice's icy eyes looked Rosalind over two times before stopping at her eyes.

"But I'm not her, I swear," Rosalind raised her hands in defense. "I'm...someone else. Call me...call me...Dawne."

"Dawne?"

"Yeah, you know, like the sun's about to set and stuff...?" Rosalind never liked her first name, it sounded too _soft_ for who she was. Her middle name was a lot better. Dawne. Mysterious and elegant. "I'm Dawne and whatever you need, I can get. Just don't kill me."

Alice licked her lips and looked to the side while she presumably thought about it. Rosalind's eyes were glued to the knife in Alice's hand that was twirling and twirling...deciding her fate.

It was her right to survive. She'd already survived whatever the hell happened to her earlier, she could survive this too.

After what seemed forever, Alice finally withdrew her boot from Rosalind's chest and put her knife away. "Alright, _Dawne_ , let's get to business."

Dawne Coleman would rise and leave behind Rosalind if that meant surviving in this...new world she'd somehow gotten into.


	2. The Task

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dawne is still trying to figure out what is happening to her but she also has to be careful of the prominent danger she faces with Alice.

For her own safety, Dawne dutifully followed Alice to wherever the blonde wanted to go. She was still trying to figure out what in the hell was going on because now she was sure that this wasn't the real world anymore -- it wasn't _her_ world anymore. 

Gotham was real.

Alice was real.

Beth Kane was real.

Batwoman was real. 

Kane was real.

If Dawne could, she would have liked to pass out. But she was sure if she did that, Alice would easily slit her throat or something and move on. Right now, Dawne felt like her best option was to stick around and see what exactly Alice wanted from her. She was actually interested in knowing _how_ it was that Alice knew her. 

_"In fact, Rosa, as far as I've heard...you're the go-to-girl when someone needs a jewel."_

If Alice knew her, then it meant Dawne was possibly wearing someone else's face. Or, at the very least, she was being mistaken for someone else who was still alive in this world. If that was the case, then it meant Dawne had two options: find the real 'Rosa' and make _her_ disappear, or she herself needed to disappear from Gotham. But Dawne wouldn't get ahead of herself, not until she knew the true nature of her situation. 

Right now, she needed to focus on the most dangerous problem at hand: Alice. 

Alice had been silent all the way into an abandoned warehouse. Once they were inside, she turned around with a Cheshire grin on her face. "Alright, here's the deal. I need somebody to get me a specific gemstone that's gonna be going public real soon."

"Why can't you steal it? Aren't you good at that?" Dawne asked, drawing her vague information from what she'd seen in her own world. When you were a criminal yourself, you didn't always have the luxury of watching television.

"Of course," Alice's tone was final, as if warning Dawne not to question her skills. "But I'm going to be busy and I want this to go exactly as planned. You--" she pointed a finger at Dawne, "--are the next best in this line of work. You are the only one who manages to slip through the Crows to get old McHaven's ruby stone. Well done by the way. Impressive." 

"...thanks?" Dawne honestly thanked the real Rosa for leaving that reputation behind, otherwise Alice would've surely killed her by now. 

"Now I need you to steal the Wayne's pearl necklace. It'll be held for display at a museum gala tonight."

"W-Wayne?" Dawne sucked in a sharp breath. "As in...Bruce Wayne?"

Alice rolled her eyes, almost disgusted by the name. "You're missing the crucial information that I won't repeat. It's going to be put up on display and I need you and your sneaky little fingers to take it."

"What do you need that for?" Dawne instantly regretted making the question. Alice's face contorted into raw anger. She threw her hand-knife directly at Dawne, only missing because Dawne had the good instincts to duck. 

"I'm hiring you to do a job! You're on a need to know basis!" Alice exclaimed, her body shaking as if Dawne had crossed a line. 

Dawne couldn't help the look on her face. Alice truly was crazy and she needed to remember that. It would mean less hand knives in her future. "Fine. But I at least need to know what I'm getting myself into. I need schematics of the place, a list of who's going to be there and most importantly..." She walked up to Alice, holding one hand out for something. "I'm gonna need the money upfront."

If this is what it took to get Alice off her back, and most importantly to buy some time to figure out what happened to her, then so be it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P. S: I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's also a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "noble-crescent" and the tag I created for any posts having to do with my work is # noblecrescentedit.


End file.
